More than half of Mainers who are eligible for COVID-19 booster shots have received them.
Gov. Janet Mills made the announcement Thursday, as the state reports 1,384 new coronavirus cases — which is probably an undercount. With the omicron variant spreading so widely, the Maine CDC says it can't keep up with a deluge of new test results. It's turning more to wastewater testing to look for the disease.
The state is also reporting three new deaths of people with COVID-19 Thursday.
Maine is the fourth state to achieve the 50%-boosted milestone, after Vermont, Minnesota and Wisconsin. State health officials are urging more eligible Mainers to get boosters, citing recent studies that found they reduce the risk of dying from COVID-19 by 90%.
Maine as a whole has among the highest rates of vaccination against COVID-19 in the US, with 76% of the population fully vaccinated. But vaccination rates have slowed in recent weeks.
Mills says getting the initial series or the booster is the best way to protect against COVID-19 for individuals and for the health care system, which has been dealing with record numbers of hospitalizations.
While high, that number hasn't changed much since Wednesday. The total number of COVID-19 patients in hospital care rose slightly to 412, with 101 in critical care and 52 on ventilators.
